Take-up for crochet-machines.



J. M. MBRROW.

TAKE-UP FOR CROCHET MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.9,1913.

Patented Sept. 29. 1914.

7T; W E 5 V H WITNESSW HIs ATTORNEYS IHL' NORRIS PETERS coy, PHOTO LITHO WASHINGTON, u x

mural) STATES PATENT OFFICE.

:rosnrn 1vr. MERROW, or HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, Assronoaro nn Mnimow MACHINE COMPANY, or HARTFORD, conivncriccr, A CORPORATION or con- NECTICUT.

TAKE-UP FOR CROCHET-MACHINES.

Patented Sept. 29, 1914;

Application filed January 9, 1913. Serial No. 741,060.

1 To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH M. MERROW a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Hartford, county of Hartford,

State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Take-Ups for Crochet-Machines, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact specification, reference being had to the drawings and to the characters of reference thereon.

My invention relatesto crochet machines and to devices for operating upon the thread thereof.

More particularly my invention relates to a device for pulling off and controlling the needle thread of machines such as the Well known Merrow crochet-machines. An example of this type of machine is set forth and referred to in United States Patent #414,? 18 issued to myself and William H. Stedman, November 12, 1889.

Machines of this type usually employ a vertically reciprocating needle and a horizontally reciprocating crochet hook coop- Y erating with the needle to draw loops of thread from a point within the cloth tothe edge of the cloth, alternately, from above and below, and interloop these loops of thread at the edge of the cloth. Oftentimes an additional thread engaging implement is included in these machines with which the shell-stitch machines wherein the cloth or work is fed along once only for every several complete stitches, forming clusters of stitches at intervals along the edge of the fabric, the stitch clusters forming an ornamental border for the fabric, and has been found quite as desirable in the two thread machines as in the single thread machines.

In two thread crochet machines ofeither of these types the second or supplemental thread is interlooped along the edge of the stitches formed by the needle thread, and is not passed through thefabric.

Considerable thread is required to form the stitches or shells and ordinarily the thread is drawn from the tensions-by the stitch forming implements, and the ,princi pal object of the present device is to assist row type, including my invention.

tension at the proper time or times and to control the slack in the thread after it is drawn from the tension, slackening the thread for the purpose of obviating undes rable strains upon the thread during port ons of the cycle of stitch forming operat1ons.

In order that the principalobject of my invention may readily be understood I shall illustrate and describe an embodiment thereof. I 'In thedrawings: Figure 1 is a front elevation of a two thread crochet or shellstitch machine ofthe usual well-known Mer- Fi s. 2, 3 and 4 show successive views of all 518 elements directly concerned in theoperation of my device, including the device, when employed to operate upon the needle thread. Thesupplemental. thread devices are here omitted forthe sake of clearness. Fig. 5 is a plan view taken at. theregion of the line 55 ofFig. 3, showing the needle bar, the needle bar clampv and its stud, the reciprocating eye, the thread guide, the frame head, and other parts as indicated. The

I Fig. shows the crochet hook 13 fully extended over the needle plate with theneedle 12 near the top of its stroke; Fig. 2 shows the hook 13 fully retracted passing around thechaining finger and on its way down, with the needle 12 approximately in the middle position; Fig. 3 shows the hook fully extended beneath the needle plate, with the needle about at the bottom of its stroke; and Fig. 4: shows the hook again fully retracted, this time on its way up and around the edge of the chaining ,finger, the needle having made about half its ascending stroke and the implements returning to the positions in which they. are

shown in Fig. 1.

Like characters of reference throughout the drawings represent like parts.

The numeral 1 indicates the frame of the machine, 2 the hand wheel, 3 the pitman for connecting an eccentric withthe needle bar lever, 4: and imparting vibrating movement thereto, 5 isthe stud upon which this lever is pivoted, 6 the stud for connecting the said lever to the link, 7; 8 is the stud for connecting the'link 7 with theneedle bar clamp 9, and thisstud isshown as a means for carryneedlebar and aportion of the frame head are shown insection.

reciprocating thread eye having a shank 22? and a thread passage-22 The stud is pro.- vided with abore forv receivingthe shank 22 of the eye 22 which is adjustably secured.

therein by theset screw. 23. The thread f guide or thread, guiding arm 24 has an eye 24 and iszadjustabl y secured to the boss 16 by the screw 25 upon which it is pivotally1adjustable.

The operation of a machine such as shown -i."-." and. above described, provided with my in- 25 vention and'threaded as shown in the fig ures of the drawing, ,viz:v the thread being. passed from the tension to and through. the eye- 22 thence. to and through the eye 24 of the thread guide "or arm 24 and finally toand: through the needle eye, and omitting reference to the supplemental thread, is substantially'as follows: Beginning from the position inwh-i'clr the elements are shown in F 2, the needle on descending passes a loop. of thread through the fabric in the well known manner while the hook is advancing under the. chaining finger, as is shown in Figs. 2 and 3 As the needle and the eye 22 ascend, the needle casts or lets off the-loop passed by it through thefabric; the eye- 22 beginsto let out'the thread pass:- ing' from" the tension through the thread passagesa er the eye 22. to; and, through the eye 24 by permitting that thread to ap.

proacl'i the straight line' between the tension and 'the'eye 24 (from which straight line the said thread was pulled on the last descent of the eye'22.) the hook in withdraw ingfrom the position shown in Fig. 3, grasps theloop passed through the fabric bythe needle and pulls the same to and up 1 around the edge of; the chaining. finger as shown in Fig. 4. The thread guide or arm 24' withits'eye-24 is'preferably so adjusted that the thread forming the loop passed through the fabric by the needle, and the 'thread let out'bythe eye 22, will'by the'time thesaid' eye has reached the position shown u. in Fig. 4, bethe-length or quantity required by thehookto form theunder. loop and per.- mit the hook'to'rise sufficiently to clearthe fabric on the succeeding advancing stroke: over the fabric without thesaid. loop'un-- duly: binding on. the: latch or. the. shank of.

the hook when the said latch and shank are indicate bosses passed therethrough. The needle and the eye 22 continue their ascent, passing through the positions shown in Fig. 4 to those shown in Fig. 1. As the eye of the ascending needle emerges from the fabric and the hook passes from the position shown in Fig. 4 to that shown in Fig. 1, (during which time the hook rises to clear the fabric prior to advancing over the fabric as shown and slips the lower loop, just formed, over its latch) the needle eye begins to act as a take up, drawing thethread between the eye 24 and the point where the thread penetrates the fabric, out of the straight line therebetween and thus, effecting a take up action on the thread. This action of the needle takes up the thread let out by the eye 22 from about the time the eye 22 reaches the position shown in Fig. 4, when the hook has finished drawing the under loop, until the said eye has reached the end its ascending stroke. After reached the position shown in Fig. 1,. the needle and the eye 22 begin to descend; the descending needle eye reversing its ascending action upon the thread, 2'. 0., lets; out the thread taken up on its ascent. The withdrawing hook takes the thread between the Zneedle and the fabric drawing the same into an upper loop as it withdraws from over the fabric and drops around the chaining finger as shown in Fig. 2. The descending eye'22, begins to pull off thread from between the tension and the eye 24 by pull ingthe said. thread out of the straight. line Itherebetween which thread the eye 22 will again let out on its following ascent by permitting the said thread to approach the straight line between the tension and the eye 24; The needle and the eye 22 continuing their descent, pass through the positions in which they are shown in Fig. 2 to those gin which they are shown in Fig. 8; and as ithe hook advances under the chaining finger and the needle passes a loop of thread Ethrough the fabric, as before, the eye 22 will icomplete its pulling off of the thread which, :on its next ascending stroke it will pay off Eto the hook and to the needle eye, all as therein-above stated.

It will be noted that the eye 22 effects its pulling ofi'Xand letting out action by operating upon the thread in a path that is inclined at an acute angle to the straight line between the tension and the thread eye 24 and that the needle eye effects its take up ,action by operating upon the thread in a ;path inclined at an acute angle to the straight line between the eye 24 and the point of penetration of the fabric by the needle} The reciprocating elements have,

therefore, a sliding action on the thread; the drawing effect onthe thread produced by each of the said elements increases as the element approach-es the end of its drawing having plained. r 2

On the pull off stroke the eye 22-bends or pulls thethread outPof the straight linef between the tension; and the thread guide, eye 24. At this time the pressure of en-.

gagement between the said eye and the thread is greatest, andthe'eye 22 slides along the thread in the direction in which the thread feeds or travels.- .On the letting out stroke, the reciprocating eye permits the thread to approach or return tothe straight line between the tension and the eye 24. At this time 'the pressure of engagement between the said eye and the thread is least and the eye slides along the thread in the direction opposite to the" direction of feed,

of the thread. Thus on the pull off stroke, the sliding of the eye- 22 tends to assist the pulling off actionof -the thread and on the I I letting out stroke, theefiect d'u'e tothe slid-. 1 'ing of the eye is negligible. 2

designed to cooperate with the action of the eye 22, thus, on the ascending stroke of the needle eye and whenthe needle'eye and the eye 22 are near the upperend oftheirstroke or after the lower loop has passed over the.

latch of the hook which is advancing over the fabric, the drawing action of the needle eye increases as the lettingout action ofthe eye 22 decreases and thus aslight tensionis effected on the said lower loop whereby the closing of the latch by the shedding ofthe loop is assured. On the descending stroke of the needle eye the letting out. of the thread is greatest at the early part of the stroke or when the pulling oil actionof the eye 22 is least, and the letting out action of the needle eye decreases as the pulling ofi action of the eye 22 increases Q- 1 i The principle of taking up the threadinvolved in the embodimentofjmy' invention described is particularly advantageous in connection with crochet machinesin which latch hooks are employed, for,-"in its action upon the thread the device pulls oil the thread with a gradually increasing pull oil'- action and lets out the samewith a grad-w ally decreasing pay oil a'ction,the maximum pulling oil? action occurringat the latter part of the stroke of thereciprocating im plement and the maximumpaying ofi" action occurring at the early part of the stroke. The taking up and letting out ac-,

tion is the same in character, the taking up of the thread gradually increasing toward the end of the stroke and the letting out thereof gradually decreasing further, is sensitive, positive and' accurate,

, uIn gthe embodiment of myv invention taneously varied.v l n;

The stud 8,

quiredfor its applications! The action,

and delicate adjustments may readily be .made since the reciprocating elements draw or-let out only a small amount of thread as compared with theirbtravel".

shown and described, the tension, forms an individual point of thread constrainment for the portion ofathe thread upon which the eye 22; operates, thepoint of penetration ofthe fabric, forms an individual point of'thread clonstrainment for the portion of the thread uponmwhich the needle eye cffects; a 1 .take up l action, ,and the 1 thread [eye 29in theffree end of ithe adjustable guide 2x1 111245, formsatpointofthread.constraing0 ment common to-both the portion IOithe thread upon which the eye 22 operates and a they portion offlthe thread upon which-the needle eye efi'ects a; take up action. Further, the eye 22'cooperates with the tension and theeyel 24 andrthe needle feyencooperates with the point "of: penetration of the fabric and the eye" 2&9, and, therefore, since the action ofthe eye 22 and the actionof the needle eye both -vary with. theangle sof; inc'lination "or obliquity. of: the line between the points of thread constrainmentland. the pathx of .jthe The take up action of the needle eye is.

reciprocating element; and {since their ac tions both ivary alsowith difi'erent relative positions :0f the constraining elements: and thereciprocating elements,- it is obvious that by adjusting the eye 24:? about thesci'ewv25, the operation of the eye 22fand also the take up action;,of the needleeye may .be simul- The embodiment of my invention illus trated. is a formparticularly adapted :tobe used as an attachment to a crochet lmachine of the class. described and more especially to aiimachineof the. well known Morrow 1105 type, e. 9., such asisshown in Fig. '1 of the drawings accompanying United States Patent No. 1,045,163/3 r I in which the eye 22 is mounted, is made interchangeable with the '110 usual screw used to connect the link 71 with i the needle bar clamp 9, but may be interchangeable with thestud 6* for connecting the lever .4 with the? said link, or be made interchangeable with' any. screw stud onthe needle bar actuating ,mechanism desired, 2 whereby no alteration of the parts re- The thread guiding arm: 24'mayx be substituted for the fixedthread guide usually L120.

mounted onthe"'lower;boss 16 on'the frame head. This guideconsists of a stud having a a cylindrical body' portionl'through which )is made a thread eye and a threaded shank which is screwed into the frames": By un- :1'25

screwing the said fixed .thread' guide the guide 24may be secured by means of the screw 25 made to fit the "threaded hole. Thus it will be seen that the guide arm 24.

fand thescrew 25are interchangeablewith a ilille'ilili-IQfid gnide and on the asideof aclineg the fixed-'ithread guide iusu-ally foundiinith-e lower iboss of thei'trame' rhead ot-fthese imaehines tThe lguide 24, -l1oWeyer, and ithe means for securing .it'to"the desired part of at 'sinachine smay lbe unodified in :any swellv lfllOW-Il vmannerto "-suit (the particular ;needs l'-Iavingithusfdeseribed myxinvention, .what Iac'laiIn'; and iiesire rtolsecu're-by Letter-s Pata el'it of\thellgiiitedfitatesliszf 1.- ]'n ta; 0 l heti Inaohine,:1the stitch .dforminga nechanism ofawhlich includes azvibratory a-re'ciprocating crochet hook operating :to fo'i 'ln oizered-gesstitohes includingan .upper loop andc-a'ilower lo'opaformed :from a single ithread andthe two loops of which .aretied iby ailoopizkofa-the szfollowing stitch; and in I #combination therewith, a-:pair.ofithread supportingl elements-amounted one: above and to 2320 {one sidegoit the otherl-on a stationaryv portijon o-fthe;i:machine, ;and a vertically recip- :rocating :thread engagingwimplement oper ating :upon: thefithread inua path the Zlimits o -which are Lbeneath ijthe Lupper :and above 125 l the lowerrotrthe thread supporting elements iandweithini-the latera'l distance therebetween f w he rebylithe sa-idthre'a'drengaging implement 5 epulls dfl' *the :thread as the ,crochetfhooki zlforimsrthezupper loop andnlets outethesamei earn eats. the said rhoo-k-sformslthe lower loop, and aneans atoriactuating; and ucarnyin-gzthe thread 5 gengagingimplement,

- 11251111 a;crochet,inachine, including. an veye; pointed rneedle, a :needle bar and. a I vibratory 1&5 reciprocating crochet hook.and. in combine-f tion, a' ldeviceiof the classdescrihed embody-l gii-ng a tension andan: adjustable :threadlguide, 'both .rmounted ionia's'tat-iona-ry portion of the emachi-ne, the tension :being mounted above rpanalll withflthe aneedle c bar ropposite :to} that on which theithre'ad; guide :is: adjustahly mounted, and a thread engaging-implement =.-earried *Eby the .needle 'bar .and operating .uponithethread immediately, between. the

tension sand-thethread guide in a path parallel With the needle ibitl andulbetween the tension land :the I saidrgthread guide; whereby thesthread is pulled .011 and let out conceafor. each two meciprocati-ons jof the crochet shook.

-.3'.vln combination in a crochet machine includinga reciprocatingeye pointedzneedl e,

adevice of the class.descnibedzemb'odyinga thread engaging implement reciprocating in Eyerticalrectilinear path, a tension mountved-ionfonecside ofa'and-iabovelthe upper end )ofithe path :of'the implement and a thread gguide a'djustably mounted on the other side -...'o'tzand-:be;tween the said path and the path of the. needle eye, the straight line, between bathe :tension. and :the vthread guide being in- :clined to the path of the implement and the .gstraight -lineibetween' ithe said thread ,guide -;ope'rating upon :theneedle thread held betweensthertensioncandthe'thread guide, may

pull oflz'thread :on zit'sldescent and let out the pulled ofi thread on its ascent and whereby theneedle,operatingupon the needle thread 'heldbetween the said 'threado guicle and the a point otneedlepenetration,may-take up and 7 let out1the :thrcad; substantially as :herein set forth and described.

isluln combination .in ,a crochet machine,

:thestitcliiforming mechanism of which in ,cludes aIIJGyQPQIHlZGd aieedle andan oscillaxto'ry crochet, hook, .a =1nechan1sm for operaton the thread including; a tension mount- .edonrthe upper portion of the frame head ofrthe machine, thread guide mounted on ptheilower portion thereoflan eye in the said threa'dgc'guide and an eye-reciprocating in a :path 'inclinedtothe straight line between the tension andthethread guide, the course of the thread through theelements of the device being from the tensionthrough the reciproeating eye, through the eye of the thread guide and then through the needle eye, whereby the reciprocating eye cooperating with ,the tension and the thread guide may operateto ,p ullofi the thread on its descent rand-to letout the threadto the needle and the crochet hook onits ascent substantially in thean-anner and for the purposes herein set vforth.

' 5. Inca crochetmachine includingan eye pointed needle, aneedlebar mounted in the :frame headrof the machine and mechanism .for actuating the needle bar, the combination ofa tension mounted on the upper portionof the frame head, an arm one end of which 'is adjustably secured .tothe lower portion of the frame head, the said arm having :a thread eye through the free end :thereof, situated at one side of a straight ,line between the point of penetration of the needle and the tension, a reciprocating eye operating on the thread between the tension and the threadeye to pull off thread on its descentand let out thevsame on its ascent,

.said needle eye operating-between the thread eye and the .point of penetration of the needle to take up thread on its ascent and letvo-ut the same 011 its descent; avhereby adjustment ofthe position of the thread eye with respect to the tension and ,the point of v penetration of the needle-will simultaneousl-y vary the action of the reciprocating .eyeand the needle eye.

JOSEPH M. MERROV.

Witnesses:

Gnonen ALLEN PAGE, W. C. W. PLCEEVAR.

i iifig'pieaeat-lthi mateatmaybe iqbtained.for;five .centsreach, hyjddressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D; 0;" 

